An Israeli military court ordered the imprisonment of a Jerusalemite child from Alezariya, to the south east of Jerusalem. Local sources said on Thursday that the 14-year-old child Mohammed Al-Mikahal was also fined 2000 shekels for throwing firebombs at Israeli targets. Meanwhile, Jawad Siyam, the director of Wadi Hilwa information center, charged the Israeli occupation authority with trying to recruit Jerusalemite children as informants. Describing the attempts as a rising phenomenon, Siyam said that even families of the victims try to cover up for their sons fearing social retribution. Siyam told the PIC that the IOA was exploiting the economic conditions to recruit the children and even the adults.

A UN human rights watchdog on Thursday accused Israel's police and military of abuses against Palestinian children ranging from torture to solitary confinement and threats of death and sexual assault in prisons.

In a report on Israel's record, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said it expressed its "deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police".

The committee said soldiers arrested Palestinian youngsters regularly during night-time sweeps, tying the kids' hands painfully and blindfolding them, and often transferring them to detention centers without informing their parents.

It also said that arrested Palestinian children were subjected systematically to physical and verbal abuse, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, as well as having access restricted to toilets, food and water.

"These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pre-trial detention," said the committee.

It had obtained its information from other UN rights bodies, military sources and Israeli and Palestinian rights groups. Israel did not cooperate with requests for information on the issue, it said.

Besides spotlighting abuses in Palestinian territories, it also expressed grave concern at the number of Palestinian youngsters who have been held in Israeli jails.

It said that an estimated 7,000 kids aged from 12 to 17 years, but sometimes as young as nine, have been arrested, interrogated and detained since 2002 -- an average of two per day.

Most were taken in after being accused of throwing stones at Israeli forces and settlers, an offence which can carry a 20-year penalty.

In April this year, 236 children were in military detention centers, with dozens aged between 12 and 15, the report said, drawing on data from UNICEF and Israeli rights group B'tselem.

The committee expressed its "deepest concern that children on both sides of the conflict continue to be killed and injured", but underlined that kids in the Palestinian territories were "disproportionately represented among the victims".

In addition, it said, while Palestinian children suffer discrimination in "all aspects" of their life, those from the Israeli Arab, Bedouin and Ethiopian-origin communities also face it.

A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said."Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released," it said in a report.The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it had responded to a report by the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in March on ill-treatment of Palestinian minors and questioned whether the U.N. committee's investigation covered new ground."If someone simply wants to magnify their political bias and political bashing of Israel not based on a new report, on work on the ground, but simply recycling old stuff, there is no importance in that," spokesman Yigal Palmor said.Kirsten Sandberg, a Norwegian expert who chairs the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, said the report was based on facts, not on the political opinions of its members."We look at what violations of children's rights are going on within Israeli jurisdiction," she told Reuters.She said Israel did not acknowledge that it had jurisdiction in the occupied territories, but the committee believed it does, meaning it has a responsibility to comply with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.The report by its 18 independent experts acknowledged Israel's national security concerns and noted that children on both sides of the conflict continue to be killed and wounded, but that more casualties are Palestinian.Most Palestinian children arrested are accused of throwing stones, which can carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, the committee said.The watchdog examined Israel's record of compliance with the children's rights convention as part of its regular review of the pact from 1990 signed by 193 countries, including Israel. An Israeli delegation attended the session.The U.N. committee regretted what it called Israel's persistent refusal to respond to requests for information on children in the Palestinian territories and occupied Syrian Golan Heights since the last review in 2002."DISPROPORTIONATE""Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed and thousands injured over the reporting period as a result of (Israeli) military operations, especially in Gaza," the report said.Israel battled a Palestinian uprising during part of the 10-year period examined by the committee.It withdrew its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but still blockades the Hamas-run enclave, from where Palestinian militants have sometimes fired rockets into Israel.During the 10-year period, an estimated 7,000 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, but some as young as nine, had been arrested, interrogated and detained, the U.N. report said.Many are brought in leg chains and shackles before military courts, while youths are held in solitary confinement, sometimes for months, the report said.It voiced deep concern at the "continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants", saying 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013 alone.Israeli soldiers had used Palestinian children to enter potentially dangerous buildings before them and to stand in front of military vehicles to deter stone-throwing, it said.Almost all had remained unpunished or had received lenient sentences, according to the report.Sandberg, asked about Israeli use of human shields, said: "It has been done more than they would recognize during the dialogue. They say if it happens it is sanctioned. We say it is not harsh enough."(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; editing by Alistair Lyon and Raissa Kasolowsky)

The Magistrate Court in Jerusalem ordered the release of 13-year-old Jerusalemite child Ismail Muhaisen on bail. The father, Tawfik Muhaisen, said on Friday that the court ordered the release of his son on Thursday after paying a one thousand shekels bail in addition to another 5000 shekels bail to paid by a third party.

He said that the court also put the conditions that Ismail should not approach the mountain area near his hometown of Issawiye and should not talk with his friends, who are accused of starting fire in that area, for three months.

The father said that one of the Israeli interrogators threatened his son that he would bring a Sudanese man to rape him in order to force him to confess. He added that the judge ordered an investigation into the incident.

Israeli police forces arrested six children in Issawiye last week on the charge of starting fire in the town’s nearby hills. They were released a few days later with the same conditions imposed on Ismail.

Muhammad R, 17, was used as a human shield by Israeli border police during clashes with protesters in the West Bank town of Abu Dis. (Photo courtesy of Huthifa Jamous)By Dina Elmuti Yanking him by the collar and shoving him in the neck, the armed Israeli soldiers proudly paraded the handcuffed teen up and down the street, making a public spectacle of him in the occupied West Bank town of Abu Dis. Armed with live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas, on Friday, April 19, at least 10 Israeli soldiers confronted the crowd of protesters using 17-year-old Muhammad Rabea as a human shield. They forced him to walk at gunpoint with his hands raised in the air as they approached the protesters. Muhammad told Defence for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine) that he recalls inhaling the caustic smell of the tear gas, hearing the piercing sound of gunfire, and feeling the heat of the shell casings brush past his stomach as the soldier to his left opened fire at the crowd with live ammunition. In October 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice banned the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. Failing to effectively implement the court’s decision, the soldiers also failed to realize their act was being captured and exposed. Video footage of the incident shows two soldiers flashing a V-for-victory sign before opening fire at the protesters. Israeli border police spokesman Shai Hachimi told Agence France-Presse that the police officer in charge only wanted to show the youth was unharmed during his arrest. He denied that the teenager was used as a human shield. Since 2004, DCI-Palestine has documented 21 cases of Israel’s use of Palestinian children as human shields. In breach of Israeli domestic law and international humanitarian law, Israel has continued to use Palestinian children as human shields with near complete impunity. In 2010, two Israeli soldiers, who used nine-year-old Majid Rabah as a human shield during Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza, became the first and only so far to be charged and convicted of the crime.Muhammad's story

Muhammad told DCI-Palestine that on the afternoon he was abducted he was walking to the supermarket, approximately 200 meters (660 feet) from his home, when he saw a group of youth running away and shouting that Israeli soldiers were chasing them. Unaware that there were any clashes taking place, he began to run as well. Moments later, two military jeeps advanced toward him and a voice from behind threatened to shoot him if he did not stop. A soldier caught him and forced him into a military jeep where he was bound and blindfolded. Violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the UN Convention against Torture, Israeli soldiers and authorities subjected Muhammad to ill-treatment during arrest and interrogation. DCI-Palestine evidence shows that 75 percent of Palestinian children experience a systematic pattern of ill-treatment by the Israeli military, with the majority of abuse occurring during the first 48 hours. Like other children who have been detained and tortured by Israeli forces, Muhammad shares a painful and unimaginable narrative. He points to his forehead where a soldier struck him with the stock of a rifle, at his legs where soldiers kicked him repeatedly, and at the base of his neck, wincing from the pain he still feels from being hit there with steel helmets. He describes the verbal and physical abuse he was subjected to in the back of the military jeep during the forcible transfer to the military camp on the hill west of town. With his hands restrained by two plastic cords digging into his skin, soldiers forced him to sit on a revolving chair that spun as the jeep moved, giving them easier access to kick him from all sides. After reaching the camp, the soldiers dragged him out of the jeep and knocked him down on the ground. “I couldn’t see anything but I remember feeling pain everywhere,” he said. “One of them hit me on my head with his helmet.” Muhammad screamed in pain and begged the soldiers to stop, but they began beating him harder for at least 10 minutes. It was at this point that the soldiers took him back to town where he found himself in the midst of clashes. At gunpoint, soldiers forced Muhammad to walk among them as they confronted the demonstrators and opened fire in their direction. After a few moments, he was shoved into the jeep where he was blindfolded and transferred back to the military camp. “One of the soldiers sprayed the keffiyeh (scarf) I was wearing with pepper spray before tying it tightly over my eyes, burning them,” he says. “Each time I coughed, he told me to shut up and kicked me. I wasn’t allowed to cough.” At the military camp, soldiers forced him to stand facing a metal pole. Muhammad said the soldiers ripped his jacket and searched him, while an army dog clawed his back and calves. Following the search, soldiers knocked him down on the ground where he laid for two hours in pain as they continued to kick him in his legs, back and stomach. One of the soldiers removed the keffiyeh over his eyes and poured gasoline on it, burning it in front of him. The soldiers re-blindfolded him with a black piece of cloth and continued to hit him on the head with their helmets. Muhammad struggled to stand for long due to the pain in his right leg, but the soldiers continued the ill-treatment by confining him in a sewage disposal system where he stood for over half an hour, blindfolded and bound. Muhammad remembers hearing the sound of a steel door slammed shut before he was caged in suffocating silence. Following his confinement, Israeli border police transferred Muhammad to the Maale Adumim police station for interrogation. Upon arrival, he was taken to a room where he was fingerprinted, weighed and photographed. Still bound, he was taken to the interrogation room where he was accused of throwing stones. Muhammad’s father told DCI-Palestine that when he arrived at the station, he was allowed to enter the interrogation room with his son on the condition that he remained silent the entire time. Israeli authorities gave Muhammad a confession document written in Hebrew, which he refused to sign. DCI-Palestine evidence shows that children are often shown and forced to sign documents written in Hebrew, a language the overwhelming majority do not understand. In 31 percent of cases in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, children provided a confession at the end of a coercive interrogation in 2012, according to Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCI-Palestine. Following a lengthy interrogation, Muhammad was later given a letter reprinted in Arabic. Due to his state of mental and physical exhaustion, he reluctantly signed the confession to halt the interrogation. At no point was Muhammad told of his right to remain silent or right to have an attorney present. Muhammad’s father notified the Israeli authorities that Muhammad has enlarged tonsils and adenoids that restrict his breathing and require medication, which he brought with him in a bag. Muhammad told DCI-Palestine that he saw a soldier throw the bag of medication out the window shortly after his father left. After nearly two days of beatings and interrogation, Muhammad was allowed one cup of water to drink, which he was forced to fill himself as he remained handcuffed. After questioning, Muhammad was transferred to Ofer prison where he was detained in a room with 10 other children for 21 days. During his detention, he faced five court hearings and was released from prison on May 9. He is currently awaiting trial. Less than a month following his release, Muhammad appears visibly shaken by the abuse and trauma he sustained. His ribs are bruised and the invisible wounds he carries remain open and raw. He worries about being unable to concentrate on his studies and scoring well on his Tawjihi exam next year. This secondary education certification exam determines the future for many Palestinians. “I just can’t remember things the way I used to before it happened,” he states in a subdued tone. He continues to suffer from a throbbing headache and a constricting feeling in his chest that interfere with his sleep and daily activities. Muhammad’s father provided DCI field researchers with medical records and documentation. The look of apprehension and despair on his parent’s faces echoes his pain. “He wakes up jolted in the middle of the night, screaming,” says his mother. The haunting images and memories replay in his mind disrupting his schoolwork and mental stability, according to the psychological evaluation given to him by Al Marfa Mental Health Association. The frequent raids on Abu Dis by Israeli soldiers create a source of anxiety for Muhammad, considering he could face up to a three year suspended sentence and fine if he is caught anywhere near clashes or engaging in any resistance activity. “He’s afraid to walk to school,” says his father, “so I take him every day, but he’s still afraid they [Israeli forces] will come for him.”

Dina Elmuti volunteers with the Accountability Program at Defence for Children International Palestine. This article was originally published in Mondoweiss.

I’m 14 and half years old. I’m in the ninth grade in the Kafr Qadum high-school. I’m the eldest son in my family and I have three siblings. We live at the western end of the village, about a kilometer away from the village center. On Saturday, 1 June 2013, at around eleven o’clock in the morning, a friend phoned and told me that soldiers had come to our village at night and put up posters with pictures of four boys, including me. He said that under each picture, they’d written “We’re the army, watch out, we’ll catch you if we see you or if we come to your home”. He told me that posters like that had been put up in eight different places around the village, on the walls of houses and of the mosque. In the beginning, I didn’t take him seriously and thought that he was kidding. But I started getting worried and thinking about it more when my father, who works in Jericho, called me. He told me the same thing, and that the other three boys in the posters are older than me. It turned out that my parents had known about it from early in the morning, after the army left the village, but they meant to keep it from me so that I could concentrate on studying for my end-of-year exams without worrying. My father asked me to relax and not to worry about it. But after I talked to him, I was worried and scared and it was hard for me to concentrate. I asked myself – why are they putting a picture of me up on a wall? I thought that the soldiers can go into any house in the village, so why didn’t they come to my home, even though I’m always here? I couldn’t find an explanation and I thought the army must want to scare us, because of the demonstration that’s held every week in the village. I could tell that my mother was worried and scared, even though she tried to hide it. My little siblings were afraid, too. My sister Lena, who is nine years old, asked if she could go to my grandfather’s house because she said she’d be safer there. My mother and father tried to calm her down and let her sleep in the room with them. Being afraid affected me during exams. Yesterday I had my English exam, and I couldn’t concentrate. Today I have a history exam and tomorrow a general health exam. It’s affecting my family, too. Since the posters have been put up, there’s a feeling of sadness at home.Raed Nasser Hassan Ishteiwi, 14, is a ninth-grader, of Kafr Qadum. His testimony was recorded by ‘Abd al-Karim Sa’adi on 3 June 2013, at the witness’s home.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) encircled on Wednesday morning the Litwani secondary school to the east of Yatta town, south of Al-Khalil. Ratib Al-Jabour, the coordinator of the popular committee against the wall and settlement in the village, said that the soldiers were besieging 27 students inside the school.

He said that the IOF claimed that wanted persons were among those students and would not allow them to leave, adding that families of those students arrived to the school but the soldiers forced them away.

In another incident in Al-Khalil, IOF soldiers occupied the rooftop of a Palestinian home in the city.

Palestinian security sources told Quds Press that the soldiers clashed with inhabitants, adding that the soldiers were deployed in a number of suburbs in the city.

IOF soldiers also arrested a young man in Daheriya village in Al-Khalil after searching his home.

Tuesday May 28 2013, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, reported that the Israeli Police released an 11-year-old child, identified as Saif Roweidi, after kidnapping and interrogating him for several hours.

His mother told the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan that he was placed under house arrest until May 30, and that the Police is claiming that he hurled stones and empty bottles at settlers’ vehicles in Silwan.

Saif was kidnapped on Thursday as he and his sister, were walking back home from school; he was beaten by the soldiers causing cuts and bruises.

His sister, 15, said that her brother was crying and screaming, and was telling her “tell my dad...”

“My child was scared, he saw an Israeli Border Police vehicle driving fast, and suddenly stopping in middle of the street”, his mother said, “He tried to run away, but the Police chased him, beat him, and slammed him against the wall”.

His father went to a Police station West Jerusalem, but could not get information about the location of his son. One hour later, the father received a phone call from the Police telling him that his son is held at the Police station in Salah Ed-Deen Street in East Jerusalem.

Both parents of the child went to the Police station where there child was under interrogation without an attorney or a parent present, but the Police only allowed the mother to be attend the interrogation.

“The Police ordered me to sign an affidavit vowing not to intervene in the interrogation, not by word or even by body language”, the mother said, “The police claimed he hurled stones and empty bottles at settlers in the town, and that a settler was injured, they asked him about his friends, timeframes of leaving home and heading back home from school, they were trying to intimidate him”.

She added that her son was interrogated for four hours, including an interrogation session that was held without a parent present.

On May 22, Israeli soldiers kidnapped five Palestinian children in Silwan after the army claimed that the children, 13 -15 yeas old, “attacked an Israeli settler”.

After a video documenting the attack surfaced more than a month after the assault took place, the Israeli Military Police decided to investigate a violent attack carried out by Israeli soldiers against a Palestinian youth who was kidnapped near the Ofra settlement, near Ramallah.

The attack, which took place on April 26, was caught on tape by a surveillance camera operated by settlement security guards who distorted the recording and obstructed the investigation.

The Palestinian youth, Mohammad Dar Sa’ad, from the Al-Mazra’a

Ash-Sharqiyya village, was kidnapped, and was imprisoned for a month after the army claimed that he hurled stones at them.

On Monday, May 27, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) filed an urgent appeal to the Israeli military demanding a thorough investigation into the assault.

B’Tselem said that camera operators in Ofra settlement apparently tried to avoid documenting the attack by diverting the camera from the scene, and added that the footage of the violent assault was not sent to the defense attorney, and the Palestinian never saw it.

On Tuesday, the Military Police Investigation Unit (MPIU) informed B’Tselem that it will open an investigation into the assault. The decision was made one day after B’Tselem demanded an investigation into the violent arrest of the Palestinian youth.

After the footage documenting the attack was released, the Israeli Military prosecution withdrew the charges against the Palestinian who was subsequently released after a lesser indictment was brought against him.

“Only thanks to efforts made by his attorney, Nery Ramati of Gaby Lasky and Partners, Law Offices. Once the footage was revealed, the military prosecution withdrew its claim that Dar Sa’ad had thrown stones and he was released”, B’Tselem said.

The center added that different persons clearly saw the footage documenting the assault before it finally made its way to Ramati.

“The camera operators, the security coordinator of the Ofra settlement, and the police investigators and military prosecution, who learned of the violence last week. All were obliged to transfer the footage to the appropriate law enforcement authorities and to demand that the severe violence documented in to be investigated”, B’Tselem said, “their choice to refrain from action raises grave suspicion of disruption of legal proceedings. In addition, soldiers and officers who were at the scene witnessed the violence, but none of them reported it to the law enforcement authorities in real time as required by law and by military orders.

“The footage shows Palestinian youngsters around the entrance to the village of Silwad. At a certain point (00:15), a soldier is seen arresting Dar Sa’ad, forcing him to the ground and beating him”, it added, “Two soldiers join him and begin punching and kicking the prostrate detainee. The camera is then suddenly shifted in a different direction, where nothing relevant is occurring.”

The Center further stated that, after shifting away from the soldiers, the camera later shifts back to the soldiers who were then trying to force the Palestinian into a military jeep (minute 1:30).

It added that later on (minute 5:17), a Border Police officer is seen kicking the youth who was handcuffed and being forced into the jeep. “Then, again, the camera zooms out and the rest of the incident cannot be seen”, B’Tselem reported.

According to B’Tselem report, Dar Sa’ad was kidnapped during clashes that took place between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in Silwan, he was then moved to the Benyamin Police station where he was interrogated.

He denied any involvement in the clashes, and told the investigators that he came to the area out of curiosity, and that, minutes later, he was kidnapped and beaten by the arresting officers.

The Police did not investigate the claim, and on May 5, the youth was indicted of throwing stones at the army.

Two days later, the Military Judge in Ofer Prison Court, Col. Ami Navon, ordered the Palestinian under arrest until the end of legal proceedings, basing his decision on one testimony by the arresting officer.

On May 9, following an appeal by Ramati, military judge, Col. Zvi Lekach, decided to keep the Palestinian imprisoned, and ordered the army to obtain the footage captured by the security camera.

Another hearing was held on May 20, the prosecution failed to present the footage despite the fact that the Police investigator had seen it.

The military prosecutor said the army was facing difficulties obtaining the video from the settlement, and claimed that the prosecution is trying to talk to the security coordinator there.

On May 22, nearly a month after the Palestinian was arrested and imprisoned; all related parties finally viewed the footage. It then became clear that the Palestinian was telling the truth; the military prosecutor dropped the stone throwing charge, and replaced it with “participating in an unlicensed protest”.

Dar Sa’ad was finally released; the court did not acquit him, but he was let go under a plea bargain convicting him of participating in the claimed “unlicensed procession”.

Ata Mohammad Sharaka is only 13 years old, last week he was shot in the back, by a live round fired by Israeli soldiers at him near the Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. He was then moved to the Hadassah Israeli hospital in Jerusalem, suffering serious injuries, after the bullets hit his spine causing paralysis.

“Last Sunday, April 19, Ata came back home without his schoolbag after Israeli soldiers took it from him when they detained several students of the UNRWA school in the camp” his mother, I’timad Yassin, who stays next to him at his hospital bed, told WAFA, “They told him he’ll get his bag the next day from the school principal.”

The next day, Ata went to get his school bag, the situation in the refugee camp was calm, no clashes or confrontations, and then he bought Coke and sat in front of the shop to drink it.

He suddenly then fell onto the ground, and could not get up, he did not know what hit him, and shouted at some children playing nearby who rushed to help him, but they did not know what is wrong, and asked a young man to help.

The young man carried Ata, who was bleeding from his back, and took him to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah.

“I returned to the camp back from work, and some children told me that Ata was shot by the army, at first, I did not believe them because the situation was calm, and no clashes have taken place with the Israeli army”, the mother said, “I then called his father who has a store in Jifna nearby village, he said he did not see Ata today, I then just rushed to the hospital and the doctors told me that my son was shot, and is under surgery”.

The doctors said that Ata was shot in the back, the bullet hit his spine, shattering it, and penetrated his lung.

“They told me that my son will not be able to walk, at least for now, I was crying and screaming”, the mother said.

“My son was then moved to the Hadassah Hospital, the doctors said he was in a critical condition, and that the doctors in Ramallah did what was necessary to save his life”, the mother added, “They told us that he will remain hospitalized for at least two weeks before he can start physical therapy.”

The mother, with a low fragile tired voice and tears flooding her cheeks, tired restless eyes and body, continued, “Ata wakes up from time to time, he keeps telling me about what happened, then he always repeats the same question ‘Mom what happened to my legs, why can’t I move them’, the doctors try to keep him sedated for now due to intense pain he suffers”.

She said that the doctors told her that he is now is a stable condition, his life is not in danger anymore, “but his condition is not improving, yet it is not worsening”, the mother added.

“What did my son do to them to be shot like this, he did not even participate in protests, his only fault is that he went to retrieve his bag”, she continued, “Is he guilty because he wanted to get ready for his final exams of his seventh grade, is this a crime, is humanity gone, where are human rights groups”.

The soldiers claim that they shot him during clashes, and that he was trying to climb a settlement wall.

“But my son was shot while sitting in front of the shop, trying to drink his coke, in an area that is far away from the settlement and its walls…”, the mother said.

The child will be hospitalized for nearly two more weeks, before he is moved to a rehabilitation center, his only “fault” is that he went to school, and went back to retrieve his bag that was taken away by the soldiers, soldiers of an illegitimate occupation, soldiers who run and maintain one of the most cruel and brutal forms of apartheid.

An Israeli soldier shot and seriously injured a young Palestinian boy in Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah late May as he attempted to retrieve his school bag. The victim, identified as Atta Muhammad Atta Sabah, 12, sustained a gunshot wound to the stomach and was reported to be in critical condition at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, DCI-Palestine sources said. The bullet struck Atta in the stomach and exited through his back, severing his spinal cord and causing paralysis from the waist down. It also caused damage to his liver, lungs, pancreas and spleen. “This shooting is devastating and tragic, and unfortunately all too common,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCI-Palestine. “The blatant disregard that soldiers often display toward children is extremely disturbing. We demand that the Israeli authorities conduct a prompt, transparent and impartial investigation and hold the perpetrators accountable.” Around 3:30 pm, Atta was seen walking toward the southern entrance of the camp to retrieve his school bag that had been confiscated by Israeli soldiers the day before, according to DCI-Palestine sources. A soldier carrying the bag signaled Atta to approach, as a second soldier aimed his weapon toward him. Atta was about 20 meters (65 feet) away from the soldiers when he suddenly began to turn away. As he turned, the second soldier fired one bullet and Atta fell immediately to the ground, according to a classmate. Two teenagers rushed toward Atta and carried him away to the nearby main road where a car took him to hospital in Ramallah. While in the car, Atta was bleeding profusely from his back and could not feel his legs, DCI-Palestine sources said. In April, several teenagers from Jalazoun camp were shot and injured by Israeli soldiers, according to DCI-Palestine research. In early April, Ahmad S, 16, sustained a fractured skull and internal bleeding after being shot in the head with a rubber-coated metal bullet. On April 19, an Israeli soldier shot Majd S, 16, in the abdomen with multiple rubber-coated metal bullets at close range. On the same day, a rubber-coated metal bullet struck Mustafa S, 17, in the face and lodged in his nose, requiring emergency surgery to remove it. Israeli soldiers shot and seriously injured two Palestinian teenagers at the entrance to Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem late February during separate clashes with demonstrators over the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody.

The association of civil rights in the occupied Palestinian lands released facts about the life of the Palestinian natives in east Jerusalem showing that 85 percent of east Jerusalem children lives below the poverty line, describing it as the worst rate of all time. According to its figures, there are 371,844 Palestinians comprising 39 percent of the total population in Jerusalem.

79.5 percent of the total Palestinian residents in east Jerusalem lives below the poverty line.

Three social welfare offices in east Jerusalem serve more than one third of the Palestinian population, while 18 such offices operate in west Jerusalem, not to mention the fact that one social worker’s caseloads in east Jerusalem are about double those of west Jerusalem.

Its fact sheet also showed that in 2012, welfare services identified 7,748 at-risk children in east Jerusalem, adding that 86 children, who suffered from violence and neglect, were taken out of their homes over the past three years.

Because of the shortage of welfare workers, not all cases are fully and speedily attended to, the fact sheet noted.

As for education, it said that only 46 percent of east Jerusalem students study in official municipal schools, while there is a chronic shortage of over 1,000 classrooms in east Jerusalem.

On Saturday 25th May, 2013, at 7:30 PM, AICafe invite you for Rights of Children in Palestine with Sukaina Khalawy from Defence of Children International – Palestine Section. Come learn about the human rights situation of children in Palestine through the work of Defence of Children International – Palestine Section, the leading Palestinian organization working to protect and promote the rights of children. DCI-Palestine works in two primary fields, identified as being most relevant for children's rights in Palestine: protection/ community mobilization, and accountability/legal protection. Through these fields we can identify current trends in the human rights of children in Palestine, and what we can do to make a difference. Sukaina Khalawy is the Grants Management and Development Officer of Defence of Children International – Palestine Section. The AIC is a joint Palestinian-Israeli activist organization engaged in dissemination of information, political advocacy and grassroots activism. The AICafè is a political and cultural café open on Tuesday and Saturday night from 7pm until 10pm. It is located in the Alternative Information Center in Beit Sahour, close to Suq Sha'ab (follow the sign to Jadal Center ). We have a small library with novels, political books and magazines. We also have a number of films in DVD copies and AIC publications which critically analyze both the Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the conflict itself.

Odai, 15, chooses to fight the moment that changed his life forever by focusing on getting better.

On the evening of February 24, 15-year-old Odai Saleh and his younger brother, Amir, wound up in the middle of a confrontation between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers. They were leaving Aida refugee camp on their way home to Bethlehem.

As the soldiers drew closer to the crowd, Amir ran for safety and then waited for his brother to join him.

Two youths spotted Amir and told him his brother had been shot. He rushed back and saw Odai lying motionless on the ground.

Two soldiers dragged Odai to a military guard tower that overlooks the camp. An ambulance then transferred him to hospital. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. At first, the paramedics thought Odai was dead. For nearly three weeks, he remained in a coma at Hadassah Hospital.

Eyewitnesses told DCI-Palestine that neither Odai nor his brother participated in the clashes with Israeli soldiers.

With the rubber-coated bullet still lodged in his head, Odai now receives treatment at the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. The wound has left him with impaired physical and mental function. Odai’s grandparents, who raised him, have been constantly at his bedside. Their lives indefinitely placed on hold until he recovers.

Odai knows exactly what happened to him on that fateful day. He chooses to fight the moment that changed his life forever by focusing on getting better.

Palestinian paramedics said Sharadeh was hit in the chest and the bullet exited through his back. The boy was transported to a Ramallah hospital, where he is in critical condition.

The Jelazoun refugee camp is close to the so-called Beit El Israeli settlement.

Earlier in the day, clashes had broken out between Palestinians and Israeli troops, The clashes erupted shortly after the occupying Israeli forces stormed the refugee camp.

Palestinian youths - angry over the presence of Israeli soldiers at the camp site - hurled stones and bottles at the Israeli troops, who fired live bullets in return.

Palestinian youth and children have been among the most vulnerable victims of the Israeli soldiers' brutality in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were occupied by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

The Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem extended on Sunday the remand of a number of Jerusalemites including children.

Lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud from Tadamun foundation told the Wadi Hilwa information center that the court extended the custody of 15-year-old Musab Abed Rabbo, who was arrested at dawn Saturday from his home, till next Thursday.

He said that two other 15-year-old children were ordered to remain in detention, one till Thursday and the other till Tuesday.

The center said that the detention of a teenager, who was arrested late last month, was also extended till Thursday.

Eyewitnesses told the center that Israeli occupation forces detained a 9-year-old child afternoon Saturday while walking in one of the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem and took him for questioning.

Seven children from al-Tur primary school suffered suffocation and burns, following an attack on the school students by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Saturday.

Head of the Parents' Committee Mohammed Abu Ghannam said in a press statement that following the end of the school hours and as the students were leaving to their places, the IOF fired stun grenades and tear gas canisters towards them.

Many children suffered injuries and burns in their necks, hands and feet, and were transferred to hospital to receive treatment.

This primary school includes nearly 1200 students. Al-Tur's Schools have been recently exposed to the Israeli police attacks.

Human rights lawyer Heba Masaleha said one of the Palestinian children detained in an Israeli jail tried to commit suicide as a result of the severe depression he suffers from because of his exposure to maltreatment at the hands of jailers. Masaleha refrained from mentioning the name of the child, but she said she visited him in jail.Lawyer: She stated that the child has been staying in bed for three days without moving or talking to anyone, except about his intention to commit suicide, adding that the child cannot sleep properly at night and already refused to eat food for two days. She affirmed that the prison doctor said the child suffered from a psychological problem, adding that the prison administration also brought an Arab doctor from Nazareth to oversee him without any noticeable improvement in his condition. Aside from their exposure to abuse and humiliation at the hands of Israeli soldiers and jailers, the mere separation of the Palestinian minors and children from their parents and families causes them to suffer psychologically, the lawyer warned. In another incident, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped a group of Palestinian minors working as a drum band without any reason, according to Bayarek center for prisoners' affairs on Sunday. The center said that the children were on their way to a Palestinian folkloric festival that was held in the West Bank in solidarity with prisoner Samer Issawi, who ended his months-long hunger strike recently after a deal with his jailers. The center underlined that the Israeli occupation regime deliberately kidnap Palestinian children to break their spirits in violation of the international law, which stipulates the need for protecting the children and their right to grow safely without any restrictions on their freedom. It noted that there are about 321 children, 30 of them patients, in Israeli jails.

29 apr 2013

Israeli Soldiers arresting and beating children in Hebron

Israeli soldiers arrested 2 children and one international peace activist in Hebron.

Israeli police and undercover forces shot a Palestinian youth and detained three children, following a raid in the east Jerusalem town of Issawiyeh on Wednesday. The Information Center of Wadi Hilweh in Silwan said that the occupation forces raided Abid neighborhood in Issawiyeh and arrested three children aged 13, then took them to an unknown destination.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said that the Palestinian young man started throwing stones towards the Israeli policemen and the border guards in the Issawiyeh neighborhood. The forces arrested only one man and fired into the air, according to the police spokeswoman claims.

During the raid, 20-year-old Ibrahim Juweid was shot by the Israeli undercover units in the abdomen. He was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital were his injuries were described as serious.

Member of the Follow-Up Committee, Muhammad Abul Humus, asserted that Juweid was injured by Israeli fire while he was attending his brother's wedding party in the town.

Local sources said: "The elements of the Israeli undercover unit have randomly fired more than 50 live bullets in the area, injuring the young man and causing a state of panic among the villagers."

Eyewitnesses said that the undercover unit has also arrested two other children and a young man from the West Bank during the raid in the Issawiyeh village.

23 apr 2013

UPDATE: 23 apr 2013

After he appeared in a video widely spread , and asked the soldiers to allow him his school exams before they arrest him and refused to do so, the occupation forces released the child Ahmed Jawabra, but only after the time of exams!!

A 14-year old boy from New Orleans, Louisiana was sentenced on Wednesday to a two-week term in an Israeli prison, after having been abducted on April 5th by Israeli forces while sleeping in his family’s home in the West Bank.

Mohammed Khalek is a dual Palestinian-US citizen, having been born in New Orleans but living now in the West Bank with his family. He suffers from a heart murmur, and says that he was physically abused during interrogation. He was charged with throwing stones, and will have to pay a fine of $835, in addition to the two weeks in adult prison.

The sentencing on Wednesday followed a ‘call-in campaign’ by Palestine solidarity activists from Mohammed’s home state of Louisiana, in the southern US. Jacob Flom, a member of Palestine Solidarity Committee, New Orleans, which helped organize the campaign, said, “The U.S. has deliberately ignored the abuses of Palestinians by Israel, as our politicians continue to send over $3 billion a year to support the illegal occupation. We are demanding our representatives take a stand now by supporting their own constituent, Mohammed Khalek. We will not allow our representatives to be silent as they send our tax dollars to imprison children who have been stripped of their land and their rights.”

According to a dual press release from Addameer and Defence for Children International (DCI-Palestine), Israeli forces detained Mohammad on suspicion of stone-throwing during a predawn raid on his home, according to his father. Israeli soldiers tied his hands and roughed him up while transferring him for interrogation at a nearby police station. Mohammad was unaccompanied by his parents during questioning, but heard his father arguing to see him. After interrogators told Mohammad they would release him to his father if he cooperated with them, he confessed.

“Mohammad was arrested without a warrant, denied access to an attorney, and interrogated without the presence of a parent,” said RandaWahbe, advocacy officer at Addameer. “There is also evidence that he was mistreated during his arrest and transfer. It is difficult to find a right that was not violated.”

Mohammad is being held at Ofer prison in the West Bank, according to his lawyer, Firas Sabah of Addameer. On April 7, he appeared before an Israeli military court judge, who granted the prosecution’s request to extend the interrogation period. Mohammad complained to the judge about the physical abuse he endured during arrest and questioning. His father was particularly concerned for Mohammad’s wellbeing because he has suffered from a heart murmur since birth.

“In every way, this is a typical case involving the arrest and mistreatment of a Palestinian child by Israeli forces,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCI-Palestine. “Sadly, night time arrests and the abuse of children are systematic within the Israeli military detention system. This case is exceptional only because the child happens to also have US citizenship.”

Some form of physical violence during arrest, interrogation and pretrial detention occurred in nearly 79 percent of cases documented by DCI-Palestine in 2012. In more than half of those cases, children were arrested from the family home between midnight and dawn.

DCI-Palestine evidence shows that children arrive to Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived. Unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by their parents during an interrogation. They are questioned alone and rarely informed of their rights, particularly their right against self-incrimination. The interrogation techniques are generally mentally and physically coercive, frequently incorporating a mix of intimidation, threats and physical violence with a clear purpose of obtaining a confession.

DCI-Palestine and Addameer maintain that all children must be entitled to have a parent present at all times during interrogation, as well as have access to a lawyer of their choice prior to interrogation, and preferably throughout the interrogation process. All interrogations of children must be audio-visually recorded.

In March, there was a total of 4,812 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails, according to Addameer. Of those, 236 were children aged 12-17, based on DCI-Palestine research.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up three Palestinian young men in the Old City of Al-Khalil at dawn Monday after searching a number of homes.

Local sources said that big numbers of IOF soldiers flooded several alleys in the Old City and arrested a number of students.

They noted that the soldiers burst into a number of apartments that were maintained by a local committee then arrested Open Quds University student Arafat Al-Natshe.

The sources said that two other young men, including a teenager, were taken from eastern Al-Khalil, after their families’ homes were ransacked. (The Palestinian Boy in the video: Please do not arrest me now, I have a test in school tomorrow, you can arrest me after the completion of the exam.)